


The Inevitability of Palpatine

by ExAlt0241



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Fix-It, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Fix-It, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-21
Updated: 2019-12-21
Packaged: 2021-02-18 07:36:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,272
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21890584
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ExAlt0241/pseuds/ExAlt0241
Summary: A rewrite of the throne room scene in The Rise of SkywalkerWith Luke's guidance, Rey has entered the Sith throne room to face the Emperor. However, as she sees the vacant throne what echoes louder than the lightning around her is what Kylo told her about who she is.
Comments: 1
Kudos: 12





	The Inevitability of Palpatine

**Author's Note:**

> JJ Abrams and Chris Terrio have made it so my soul no longer knows peace. There was plenty in The Rise of Skywalker for me to love, but there was enough of a poison pill that the only way I could purge it from my system is by writing 1200 words as an emetic. Its probably still just as dumb, contrived, etc; but at least I can sleep at night again.

Rey stood before the Emperor’s empty throne that she had tried to force out of her earlier visions with feelings of dread starting to well inside of her. When she felt someone in the room with her she pivoted swiftly to face her foe before her.

  
He seemed like the shadow of human being, vaguely shaped the same but with an indistinct form. He moved and began to speak but seemed somehow not alive. "How delighted I am to finally see you before me my child, or rather in my current state, to feel your powers of the Force so close by and so intimately akin to mine.”

  
“I am nothing like you, you are just a forgotten nightmare that should have stayed dead. My heart is not dark and putrid like yours, there’s no way we are related by even a drop of blood.” Rey heard her voice reverberate in the giant throne room, trying not to let Kylo’s earlier words affect her more than they already had.

  
Emperor Palpatine seemed amused and paced slowly around Rey watching her twitch to adjust her footing to continue to face him directly. “My dear we are much more closely related than mere blood. We are both inheritors of the true talents of the dark side. Someone of our potential is so hard to find in all the galaxy, its unpredictable to know where one might show up. Gifts for the Force can certainly be passed within families, but rare genius like ours can arise anywhere the force permeates. Even to such insignificant nobodies as your parents.”

  
Rey tightened her jaw to not give the Emperor the response she thought he wanted.  
“Oh, I can feel the hatred you have for them for abandoning you. Even at their passing mention.  
Good, good. Just as I had hoped.  
You have my sympathies, I know I felt such a sureness of purpose when I killed my family. It was then that I knew nothing at all that could stand in the way of my destiny, I’m sorry for robbing you of the satisfaction.”

  
Words bubbled up in her throat, the thought she tried to push away earlier rushing back. “Why did you tell Kylo Ren that I’m a Palpatine?”

  
“Because you will be the culmination of my legacy, made anew in my image!” he shouted with a laugh, “I never wanted to kill you, I wanted you here so that you may take the throne. It was such a shame when your parents would not reveal where you were and delayed my plans momentarily, but you are here now just as you were meant to be. I will feed your unceasing anger and hate in your heart and transform you into the pinnacle of the Sith ideal. You will become the new Empress and bind the galaxy to your will.”

Rey could only stand there and stare at what the Emperor had said. Lightning crackled in the distance all around them, shadows flickering and twisting around the room.

  
“I sought many pupils to make into a fitting successor, gathering any who had even a glimmer of potential, but none were capable enough to contain in them the power I envisioned. Vader, Snoke, Kylo Ren, all were dead ends when I saw that their powers, great as they were, could not surpass mine. You are not like the others though, you hold in you such potential for the dark side and powers yet still untapped. I hope you can afford me the sentimentality of appointing my most perfect pupil with my own name since I will form you in my own vision. You will be reborn as the person you were meant to be, raised up from the squalid life your parents abandoned you to. Rey from nowhere shall become Empress Palpatine”

  
Rey had had enough of letting Palpatine say whatever he wanted about who she was. “I don’t care what grand plans you have. I don’t intend to fulfill whatever destiny you think I’m supposed to. I am a Jedi and the dark side will have no sway over me.”

  
The Emperor moved closer and into the light revealing the looming arm of tubes and machinery affixed to him. This was the first time Rey could see that what was standing before her was unmistakably like a corpse long dead.  
“Your Jedi teachings say that death brings you and your body into the Force, but I am proof that one can escape death by filling your body with the energy of the dark side. I explained this to my failed apprentice Darth Vader with the tragedy of Darth Plagues the Wise, but I see you are in no need of such stories since you have already instructed yourself in these ways.”

  
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, I don’t deal in the Sith’s ways of using the Force for death.” Rey stood more decisively now as she saw the true form of the enemy she was to confront.

  
Palpatine let out a raspy laugh and answered. “Do you really fool yourself so easily? Death and life are reflections of each other, once you know how to transfer one’s life with the Force the direction you choose becomes a trivial step. You take to the dark side more naturally than even me. I require some degree of mechanization to hold my life to this body. Darth Vader’s betrayal was indeed a hindrance to me, but the research I performed on his body to keep him alive has been invaluable in letting me prolong my life until I finally got to see you take the throne. Give into the hate you have towards me, kill me now and all the Sith will live within you.”

  
Rey felt Luke’s lightsaber grip in her hand and said, “No! I’ve come to end your reign once more and destroy the Sith. I will not give in to hate and turn from the light side.”

  
The Emperor cut into her words. “Haven’t you seen how feeble your powers of the light truly are. You’ve spent years training your body for survival, received tutelage in the Force from both Skywalker legends, and yet how tired has giving your life to heal a couple of paltry wounds made you. You haven’t been so exhausted since you were a child luging trash twice your size to stave off succumbing to famine.”

  
Rey tried to fill her body with adrenaline so she was ready for the fight she was leading towards, but she realized he was right. She had thought it was just the chilling presence of the Emperor and the suffocating nature of the room, but her limbs felt heavier and her breathing more ragged since she came from healing Kylo.

  
“How many deaths have you managed to prevent? Your mentors that you revered are all still gone. You’ve cut through how many stormtroopers, yet is the army I command any less vast?  
Now watch as your new family will die before your eyes for making the mistake of trusting in you. The only way to stop it is to accept your destiny, strike me down, and become more powerful than you could possibly imagine.”

All Rey could do is look up as the ceiling retracted to expose the battle waging above them. She saw destroyers stretch far beyond what she could see, with the handful of familiar rebel ships being picked off one by one. She felt as the hope and resolve she had managed to muster in her heart earlier fade away as despair crept its way in to replace the void.


End file.
